Saturday, September 28, 2013

Movie Review: Blackfish

A trip to the zoo is a delightful
experience. We love looking at those animals and taking photos. They seem so
happy in their little cages. They seem to like all the attention we give them. We
never stop to think that we’re paying to have these animals imprisoned in
solitary confinement for the rest of their lives. As humans it is in our
disposition to destroy the harmony of nature and profit through the endless
torture of other species.

Your guilt of visiting and liking
zoos will increase a thousand fold when you watch Blackfish, a disturbing, revelatory film on the dangers of nabbing
animals from their natural habitat and keeping them in captivity for our
recreational purposes. Although a documentary, the film directed by Gabriela
Cowperthwaite plays out like a razor sharp thriller on large smarmy entertainment
corporations who abuse ethical boundaries and shoot animal rights to hell.

Blackfish chronicles Tilikum, an Orca who was captured in Iceland
and brought to Seaworld, a popular American marine park to entertain audiences by
performing tricks. To say that the film makes you loathe Seaworld is an
understatement – it will make you cringe in your seat and sick to your stomach with
its series of shocking exposes. Tilikum was treated like a milking commodity by
the owners of the water park, and he ended up killing a few of his trainers in
response. And appallingly, the Seaworld management not only refused to make
changes to the way they do their business, but also blamed the victims for
their own deaths.

All of that is just the tip of
the iceberg and director Cowperthwaite puts together a bunch of searing
interviews with former trainers and workers of marine parks who are now
disillusioned and recount ghastly details of the underbelly of their industry. The
filmmaker also interviews whale hunters who are absolutely disgusted with their
own selves for being in a profession that slaughters other species. The details
become more and more grim and disturbing as the film goes on, and you keep
wondering why anyone would believe that putting killer whales in a tiny tank
and making humans interact with them is a great business idea.

Seaworld refused to be
interviewed for this film and the reasons are only too obvious. There is some
horrific footage, least of which is when Tilikum grabs and drags his trainer to
the bottom of the pool out of sheer frustration. If that doesn’t turn your
stomach, the footage of hunters throwing a net and separating screaming baby
whales from their mothers certainly will. It’s heartbreaking enough to crack
open your home’s aquarium and set your pet fish free.

But this is not a sensationalist manipulative
propaganda film. Apart from its substantial research work, Blackfish really rises to greatness for the way it makes a case
against keeping killer whales in captivity by establishing the evidence that
they are highly intelligent and emotional creatures. To date there are zero reported
incidents of killer whales attacking humans in their habitat, and Tilikum was
plucked from his family and home and placed in a tank that is the human equivalent
of a bathtub to train. Three years ago the brilliant and unsettling The Cove exposed the annual mass torture
and murder of dolphins in Japan, and Blackfish
is a powerful companion piece to that film.